Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-27
THE KANGAROO

The Kangaroo Is a native of Australia
and some of the islands near to that coun-
try. There are many species of the kan
CARGO. Some are quite large, standing six
feet high and weighing $50 pounds. Others
are as small as three-months-old cat.
They are all timid, and it is difficult to
catch one. If one of the large ones is
obliged to fight for his life. he catches the
animal IN his arms and leaps away to a
stream or pond, where he browns it. The
strength OF the kangaroo is wonderful.
The flesh Is considered quite good for food.
The skins make excellent boots and gloves.
The food of the kangaroo is principally
herbs and grass. They browse like our
cows do, and some species chew the cud.
Their eyes are almost human in express
sion, and their method of talking to each
other so peculiar that hunters learn what
certain sounds mean. They are not af-
fectionate toward each other, and a herd of
them will frequently have savage fights.
kicking and biting wickedly They take
very long leaps with rapidity. The large
species live to be 20 years old The platy-
pus, or duck-billed mole also belongs to
this order. He is a rare animal. found in
South America. His home is near a pond
or river; he swims, or walks on land. as he
chooses and is quite harmless and eood-na-
tured. No other hairy animal has a bill like
mole.
SOME INTERESTING PARENTS.
In larger and remarkable group of an
finals, represented by the kangaroo. the
young, when first born, are exceedingly
minute and absolutely helpless; so tender.
in fact, that they would perish immesii
ately If there was not a special provision
for them. This we find III the pouch,
from which these and their allies are called
marsupials. The kangaroo, the opossum,
the wombat, and a number of others rep
resent them. As soon as the little kan
CARGO is born it is placed in the pouch.
where it remains until quite well grown,
and one of the most comical sights is to
see huge kangaroo mother moving along
with the little head of the baby reaching
out OF its resting place after grass in fact,
feeding as it goes along. The little ones
leap from the pouch with the greatest ease,
and at the slightest alarm dart back, often
diving in just in time as the powerful
mother takes mighty spring and goes
bounding away. In former times there
was kangaroo as large as an elephant,
and if it carried its gigantic baby in
pouch the sight must have been a singular
one.
Now, euriously enough, while the kan
garoos are the true marsupials. their
pouches containing the organs of nutri-
ment, there are many other and widely
different animals which protect their
Young in a seemingly similar manner, and
an interesting example is the little sea-
horse, which is so familiar in collections.
and not uncommonly found on the eastern
coast. The proper name of the little
creature Is Hippocdmpus, and it is fish
about four inches in length, although but
few would consider it fish at all. In the
first place it stands upright in the water,
moving forward by the screw-like vibra-
lions of its back or dorsal fin, which is a
most beautiful object in motion The tail
ends in point, without fin, and
is prehensile, or has the power of
grasping just as has the tail of some
monkeys or the oppossum. The head of
the little animal is remarkable in its re-
semblance to that of horse, and all in all,
while the hippocdmpus almost heads the
list Of the fishes it is a singularly unfsh-
like animal, as we understa I'd the term.
Those that [ have found have been on the
Florida reef in the Gulf of Mexico, but
they live in many seas, and are almost al
ways found clinging to the sea-weed with
their little tails tightly wound about a
branch, and looking so much like it that
only the sharpest eyes can distinguish it
indeed, some species, and particularly one
from Australian waters, have long stream
ers growing from the various parts, giving
the animal the appearance of a mass Of
sea-weed floating along.-C. +. Holder in
Ap1. Vide Alrdke.